Pet Peeves about the GA Aquarium

kona001 · 07-13-2003, 10:05 AM

Hello,
These are just suggestions which a lot of them have been raised in other posts, and I have some new ones (maybe)

1. Have an option not to let the goldfish swim offscreen. Oreo sticks his/her head offscreen and stays there for a minute while shaking his/her tail (this gets annoying). The depth of the screen seems too deep for the actual size of the screen. If you are going to keep it limited to 3 goldfish, have all of them stay close to the front of the screen at least 60% of the time so you can see them more often.

2. Have more bubbles coming up from the back of the tank, and change the bubble sound so it is not exactly the same as MA. You guys could have an airstone that can be positioned in different areas of the tank..That would be very cool.

3. Please do something about the background, (which I know you're working on the most probably). Have the option to add water ripple effect in "The Pond" for those with enhanced GFX cards and translucent lilly pads (just dreaming there). Or have the fish create waves when they move in "The Pond"
I used to like the background when I could delete half of the plants leaving just two and the rocks. It looked simple and more realistic than all of them at once.

4. The mouth movement of the goldfish are the only part of them that can use some work. If you take a look at a goldfishes mouth moving, it is equivalent to a humans mouth yawning where the upper and lower parts of the mouth expand.

I have no problems with animations and tail movements since I get a constant 100 fps on the GA and then it dips to 55, 60 fps when I have a full tank. I'm sure most animation problems are caused by older video cards mixed with older machines. I have the GA running on a third machine in the house with a 400MHZ processor and a Geforce MX in it. It runs ok with 2 Frieda's and or 1 Frieda and Oreo with no plants. It gets around 15fps and still looks good. Maybe there could be a setting where you can choose if you have an old machine and a new machine which would then automatically change the setting for those computer illiterate people who buy the tank and don't know how to tweek it.

I think you guys are doing a great job by the way. I love Jim's MA still very much and am taking a great liking to GA. Most people take a look at GA and see it as much more realistic than Jim's for obvious reasons. But MA still impresses me very much and I tend to have them both running on my two pc's. And Jim's MA has one advantage over the GA. And that is the ability to run on older machines.

07-20-2003, 10:56 AM

I agree with all of Kona001's post, especially the "swimming off screen" part. I had all three fish swim off screen so that for what seemed like a LONG time I had a fish-free tank. It needs to allow five fish at least, just so there are at least one or two visible at all times.
I'm glad the number will be brought back up to five. As soon as that has been fixed and the lighting issues are fixed, I'll start using it again.
Since we are testing this Beta, perhaps some of these problems could have been avoided if a simple poll was taken beforehand, with questions like "How about only three fish in the tank?," and "What if the fish can swim completely off screen (and seemingly to some other fishy dimension) for extended periods of time?"

kona001 · 10-21-2003, 09:21 AM

This is an old thread that is outdated. I have very little pet-peeves anymore about the goldfish aquarium version 1.0.

Swimming off-screen isn't as bad anymore. Having so many fish to choose from makes it that much better. The Pond and Big Tank need something in them, they look too plain.

Mouth Movement could use some work still to make it look more realistic in the future as I posted above.

The only thing I wish I could change would be the background color of Blue. I wish there was an option where we could make that whatever color we wanted. And make it so we can change the color of the green plants as well. I know the plants are images so that might not be possible. But the background should be able to be adjusted. Until then, I'll keep mine on black.

As for the fish movement, I have an easy request that may not require that much new programming since it doesn't require that much movement. I think that you should randomly have one of the fish do what all fish do at times, and that is sleep. That would be awesome to see a fish sleeping.

Everything else I can think of is very nice, and deserves praise from everyone on this forum. What a great job your team is doing. Keep up the good work. - Kona

07-13-2003, 10:05 AM	#1
kona001 New Husband and new Aquarium Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Miami, Florida Posts: 318	Pet Peeves about the GA Aquarium Hello, These are just suggestions which a lot of them have been raised in other posts, and I have some new ones (maybe) 1. Have an option not to let the goldfish swim offscreen. Oreo sticks his/her head offscreen and stays there for a minute while shaking his/her tail (this gets annoying). The depth of the screen seems too deep for the actual size of the screen. If you are going to keep it limited to 3 goldfish, have all of them stay close to the front of the screen at least 60% of the time so you can see them more often. 2. Have more bubbles coming up from the back of the tank, and change the bubble sound so it is not exactly the same as MA. You guys could have an airstone that can be positioned in different areas of the tank..That would be very cool. 3. Please do something about the background, (which I know you're working on the most probably). Have the option to add water ripple effect in "The Pond" for those with enhanced GFX cards and translucent lilly pads (just dreaming there). Or have the fish create waves when they move in "The Pond" I used to like the background when I could delete half of the plants leaving just two and the rocks. It looked simple and more realistic than all of them at once. 4. The mouth movement of the goldfish are the only part of them that can use some work. If you take a look at a goldfishes mouth moving, it is equivalent to a humans mouth yawning where the upper and lower parts of the mouth expand. I have no problems with animations and tail movements since I get a constant 100 fps on the GA and then it dips to 55, 60 fps when I have a full tank. I'm sure most animation problems are caused by older video cards mixed with older machines. I have the GA running on a third machine in the house with a 400MHZ processor and a Geforce MX in it. It runs ok with 2 Frieda's and or 1 Frieda and Oreo with no plants. It gets around 15fps and still looks good. Maybe there could be a setting where you can choose if you have an old machine and a new machine which would then automatically change the setting for those computer illiterate people who buy the tank and don't know how to tweek it. I think you guys are doing a great job by the way. I love Jim's MA still very much and am taking a great liking to GA. Most people take a look at GA and see it as much more realistic than Jim's for obvious reasons. But MA still impresses me very much and I tend to have them both running on my two pc's. And Jim's MA has one advantage over the GA. And that is the ability to run on older machines.

07-20-2003, 10:56 AM	#2
klyntun Guest Posts: n/a	Ditto, and then some I agree with all of Kona001's post, especially the "swimming off screen" part. I had all three fish swim off screen so that for what seemed like a LONG time I had a fish-free tank. It needs to allow five fish at least, just so there are at least one or two visible at all times. I'm glad the number will be brought back up to five. As soon as that has been fixed and the lighting issues are fixed, I'll start using it again. Since we are testing this Beta, perhaps some of these problems could have been avoided if a simple poll was taken beforehand, with questions like "How about only three fish in the tank?," and "What if the fish can swim completely off screen (and seemingly to some other fishy dimension) for extended periods of time?"

10-21-2003, 09:21 AM	#3
kona001 New Husband and new Aquarium Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Miami, Florida Posts: 318	This is an old thread that is outdated. I have very little pet-peeves anymore about the goldfish aquarium version 1.0. Swimming off-screen isn't as bad anymore. Having so many fish to choose from makes it that much better. The Pond and Big Tank need something in them, they look too plain. Mouth Movement could use some work still to make it look more realistic in the future as I posted above. The only thing I wish I could change would be the background color of Blue. I wish there was an option where we could make that whatever color we wanted. And make it so we can change the color of the green plants as well. I know the plants are images so that might not be possible. But the background should be able to be adjusted. Until then, I'll keep mine on black. As for the fish movement, I have an easy request that may not require that much new programming since it doesn't require that much movement. I think that you should randomly have one of the fish do what all fish do at times, and that is sleep. That would be awesome to see a fish sleeping. Everything else I can think of is very nice, and deserves praise from everyone on this forum. What a great job your team is doing. Keep up the good work. - Kona